ASA's Most Complained Advert of 2015

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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have just published the 2015 round up of the most complained about advertising campaigns of the year. The top 10 list of the advertising campaigns that caused the most amount of complaints may come as a shock to some or people may agree with them.

Moneysupermarket.com topped the list with a massive 1,513 complaints to the ASA website.  Moneysupermarket.com is a British price comparison online business which specialises in financial services. The website allows consumers to compare prices on a wide range of products, including mortgages, loans and credit cards.

Still picture from MoneySupermarket Advertisement

The advert which was circulated on social media, the internet and on television features a man called “Dave” walking down a street and dancing to the song “Don’t Cha” by the Pussycat Dolls. He is dressed in his work suit on his top half along with a pair high heels and short denim hot pants on his bottom half. The 60-second twerk-fest promotional video also stars former X Factor judge Sharon Osborne and her dog Mr Chips. The clip, which drew inspiration from the dance moves of Beyonce and Miley Cyrus, appeared in the breaks between popular television programmes such as "Take Me Out" and "Celebrity Big Brother." The advertising campaign's hashtag was soon trending all over social media with some comparing the campaign to the irritating opera singer from the GoCompare.com adverts.

The advert quickly got lots of coverage and spread around the internet and was shared all over social media, however most of the times for the wrong reasons. While some of the public managed to see the humorous side to the advert and understood the joke that the campaign was trying to put across by calling the promo "mesmerising" and the "best ad in the world". Some members of the public considered this dress code to be offensive and inappropriate due to his clothing and dance moves that caused many to believe that the content was “Overly sexual”. Some of the complaints say that they found the promotional campaign "Disturbing" and claimed that it made them want to throw up. 

While acknowledging that some viewers might have found the ad distasteful after it received twice as many complaints than its rivals, the Advertising Standard Authority did not judge the ad to be offensive and in breach of the Code. Therefore, this resulted in the advert being not upheld meaning that the MoneySupermarket promotional campaign could stay as it was and did not have to be changed or removed. 

Watch the promotional campaign video here and leave a comment telling me your opinion and if you find the advert offensive or humorous!
http://www.tvadmusic.co.uk/2015/01/moneysupermarket-daves-epic-strut/